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Welcome to "The Language of Yoga" podcast, hosted by Becca Schmidt, E-RYT500/YACEP, a 20-year veteran yoga instructor. Prepare to take your yoga teaching skills from average to extraordinary as Becca shares her wisdom, experiences, and practical tips for helping your students find a transformative journey of self-discovery.
In this podcast, we'll delve into the art of using language to cue and connect. Discover the power of vocal tone, volume, repetition, and even the beauty of silence and stillness. But that's not all – we'll also explore the impact of incorporating class themes such as the Chakras, the Yamas and Nyamas, the elements of fire, water, and air and many more.
By embracing these themes, both you and your students can tap into the magic of metaphor and visualization. Imagine guiding your students to embody the grounding energy of the root chakra or incorporating the principles of the Yamas and Nyamas for ethical decision-making on and off the mat. Themes add depth and richness to your classes, allowing your students to connect with the natural forces within themselves.
Throughout the podcast, Becca will share invaluable insights, personal experiences, and practical tips on seamlessly integrating words, vocal qualities and themes into your instruction. Whether you're an experienced teacher seeking to revitalize your classes or a curious beginner diving into the depth of yoga, "The Language of Yoga" is here to empower and inspire you.
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Becca: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Language of Yoga. I'm Becca. Well, if you have listened to this podcast for a while, you know that I have a lot of really cool guests on my show. Today is no exception. My guest today is Joan Marie Secord, and she's one of my very, very favorite yoga instructors here in Orlando. She is not only very talented, but she's also very kindhearted.
She's smart. She's funny. And. I think she is extremely dedicated to her practice and I think her students would attest to that as well. She's just very, very devoted to what she does. Welcome Joan Marie.
Joanmarie: Becca, that was very kind. Thank you. It's very, very nice to be here with you. So, thank you for having me.
Becca: . I think it's been a little while, so it's good to see you again.
Well, I always ask my guests this very same [00:01:00] question. Uh, tell me a little bit about your yoga journey. And I like to start with the first yoga class that you can remember. If you can tell us what sort of, uh, impression that made on you.
Joanmarie: Well, this is a true story. It's very, um, unfortunate, but I did not like yoga at all in the beginning. And my first experience was very hard on my body. I was very stiff. I was very into. and lift weights and, um, fast and I couldn't sit still and I was miserable.
I thought it was boring and then I hurt myself because I went too far in a pose. I didn't listen to my body and I had to go home and put ice on my back.
Becca: okay, so
how far down the road was class number two and tell us about that
Joanmarie: that. Well, I had a beautiful friend, Mary Heffernan. Um, who was a [00:02:00] beautiful yogi who just kept gently inviting me back, inviting me back, inviting me back to the practice.
And so just periodically I would go and it got better and easier. And when I realized it was about the breath, wasn't about the poses really, I mean, it is, but not really, but it was about the breath and making the poses make sense in my unique body. That is started to click.
Becca: Now you have a fitness background. Was that first experience maybe filtered by wanting to burn calories or get out on a mat and do some fitness rather than exploring what maybe more traditional yoga is all about?
Joanmarie: Absolutely. Yeah. In college, I became very, uh, real gym rat. I've always been very active, not competitive though. No, didn't really participate in competitive sports, but I always loved the Working out [00:03:00] scenario of going to the gym, lifting weights, doing group fitness, but high impact stuff.
Um, like I said, it was hard for me to sit still. So, but that's, yeah, that started the path.
Becca: Yeah,
Joanmarie: And then I had a back injury when I was a teenager. And it was a plaguing injury throughout my whole teenage years into my twenties. And then I had three babies, boom, boom, boom, which exacerbated the problem. And then I discovered Pilates, which changed the quality of my entire life because I learned to stabilize my core.
I learned what my core was. So then I was on this Pilates journey. And that's when I took the yoga class and, and hurt myself. And Didn't listen to what I was,
Becca: you were already a Pilates instructor, you tried yoga, you went into it.
Joanmarie: I wasn't in,
Becca: and [00:04:00] I wasn't instructing Pilates yet. I was just doing Pilates and weights and um, and after practicing for a couple years, obviously I got the nudge to certified.
So what was that like? What were your first few yoga teacher training experiences like? And maybe, if you can recall, not only. You know, what style of yoga, perhaps, but also what was going through your mind. And, and was there a struggle from that? I have to, you know, tone my muscles and burn my calories and stabilize.
And then maybe that softer entry into, Oh, yoga is about breath work. It's about stillness.
Joanmarie: It wasn't a difficult transition because my first trainings were the Yoga Fit trainings.
So it was a very good transition for me. And in Yoga Fit, you really learn to structure a class and it's [00:05:00] very bell curvish. So you start off, um, very soft and meditative and then you build and then there is a fitness component to it. And then you slide down the curve and into sweet shavasana. So it wasn't a terrible transition, um, for me.
Um, my motivation for becoming certified was very personal too. This friend that I referred to, Mary Heffernan, got very ill and, um, while she was going through her treatments, I stepped in and taught her classes for her. And, um, I wasn't certified at the time. Um, I was in Pilates and it just really, um, left me feeling like, well, why are we doing this?
And why do we stand this way? And why are we being asked to do this, that, or the other? So it really prompted me to do a more traditional teacher [00:06:00] training, which is then when I went to, with Edalee Wallace, Yoga Matrix.
Becca: Absolutely amazing. So tell me about that teacher training program.
Joanmarie: I loved about that particular training was my previous experience with yoga fit was, you know, the weekend thing. And, and then you went and chewed on it a little bit, and then you came back for another weekend thing.
At least program was like a year and a half, two years, something like that. And it was a couple of weekends sprinkled out through that time period, year and a half, two years. But then two weeks of 24 seven
Becca: be immersive,
Joanmarie: and it was a little, you know, it was a lot more tradition and philosophy and all of that than obviously my yoga fit experience.
Cause I didn't go that far in yoga fit. I'm sure, I don't know, but I would think in yoga fit, once you get to level, whatever, you're delving into some of the philosophy and, um, the background. But, [00:07:00] um, It was such a community builder too, with the women that I went through training. My class was all women and it was a very, very, um, special experience.
Becca: And how many years ago was that? Do you remember?
Joanmarie: Probably about 18 years ago.
Becca: So, let's talk about the path from 18 years ago to now. What do you teach now?
Joanmarie: Well, now I am, I have a little sprinkled, I have a class in a yoga studio and then I, I still teach at the YMCA, which I have a, you know, a joke that I'm going to die at the YMCA. Yes. I've been there so long and it was also my first job as a teenager. I worked at my hometown at the YMCA. I taught swimming and.
I used to go back there in college and, um, so the Y is a special place in my heart, but I have the opportunity to teach in a gym [00:08:00] setting, which I really do
Becca: try it again,
Joanmarie: because most of the people who come in, come in looking for that, you know, the fitness thing and they want the burn and they want to burn the calories and they want to get strong, which you do, you do.
That happens as a sidebar. But then they sit and they breathe and they feel the effects of that and it's nice to kind of come in the back door with some of the quote woo woo stuff of, of yoga that people might not know they need or want. And so gym yoga may be the only yoga someone's exposed to. So I really enjoy bringing that.
And then
Becca: Yeah, I was just thinking that as you said, you know, your career started at the Y and still at the Y. I think we have a lot of listeners who are nodding out there. Yep. Yep. Me too. Me too. I'm at a gym as well. I taught at the Y for three years and it was a, it was a great [00:09:00] experience even though Some of them were, uh, you know, it is a gym experience where maybe you have people, a couple of people that are coming to the class just because it's the next class on the schedule and they throw themselves down on a mat and they don't even know what to expect.
And like you said, you kind of slip some things through that side or back door like, yeah, this is what yoga is about. And then, then sometimes on a good day you have people come up to you and say, wow, that's not what I was expecting. But it was pretty cool.
Joanmarie: exactly. And it's, it challenges me as an instructor to, Have to really watch and look at different levels.
Tend to have many different levels. Like you said, the person who's just coming in because they're available at 10 o'clock, or you know, the person who's been practicing, practicing a stronger yoga for 20 years next to the person, it's a little challenging.[00:10:00]
Becca: I remember teaching a class just as a side note. I had one student in my class whose nickname or given name was Swami. And then I had And I had kids, uh, doing backbends like literally 13 year old, 12 year old kids doing backbends in the same class. And I'm like, wow, talk about trying to teach you.
Sometimes our classes are what, like 40 people. So you're teaching 40 levels, if you will. Levels of fitness abilities, but also levels of, uh, just. Uh, what they're expecting and their background knowledge. So it's challenging. It keeps you on your toes, doesn't it? Jim, Jim yoga is not easy.
Joanmarie: It is not, but enjoyable.
Becca: Let's talk a little bit about that wonderful Pilates mix. , this podcast is the language of yoga. So I'm always really interested in how maybe different [00:11:00] experiences show up and the language that we talk about. I've Been to many of your classes and I always love them.
And I remember something where you said, um, think about pulling a pencil between your shoulder blades. Are there any other sort of metaphors that you can think of or any, , cross? Verbal techniques that come from your Pilates.
Joanmarie: Well, I think that it is a fallacy to think that yoga is just about letting it all hang out, so to speak. It's not just flexi bendi, but stability is very important in the yoga practice. And so there's a lot of crossover from my Pilates background and from my own protection of my own spine and back because of my history of my back.
So I'm really big on stabilization before flexibility. So Besides the pencil between the shoulder blades, which I didn't invent, I think I stole that from Brielle. [00:12:00] Brielle from the Y.
Becca: Shout out.
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Becca: , I love that about my favorite thing to do is studio hop. I love to just go to, I was just in Utah, um, last week and I went to a wonderful yoga studio where it was, it was very different from how it's taught here. And I don't know why, maybe it's because most of the students were snowboarders and skiers.
Uh, it was just a different vibe and I really enjoyed it. I, So I'd like to be exposed to that. And by the way, our listeners, if you are a yoga teacher and you go to other yoga studios, go there and don't tell them you're a yoga teacher. I never say what I do for a living. I just enjoy, and it's really a two way street.
You know, you don't want to. Intimidate anybody who might be, maybe it's a newer teacher and you're like, yeah, I'm in the yoga teacher. That's been around 20 years. You don't want to do that, but [00:13:00] also for yourself, you want to really let go of that. I'm here to learn. I'm here to judge. You just, you just enjoy.
just enjoy,
Joanmarie: Agree, and we are always students. We have to stay students. I have learned. Really profound things from very news teachers and um, I agree with that 100%.
Becca: So I want to. talk about maybe things that are, are a little bit more personal to, uh, to all of us as yoga teachers. So,
You
know, over our long careers, we, we've experienced tough times, personal tough times, maybe even environmental tough times here in Florida. We have hurricanes, um, you know, the fires in California there, there is sometimes there are some days when we've been hit hard emotionally.
[00:14:00] You don't even have to tell a personal story, but how, how can we as yoga teachers put,
put that in perspective? I won't even say put it aside. How can we put that in perspective and show up and shine out? Another yoga studio here in town uses that expression. How do we do that?
Joanmarie: I feel that when you have a practice, you have to practice the practice. And so when things are not going so well, whether for me personally or the world or the community, I like to use the phrase, this is what we've been practicing for. And so I feel the yoga practices.
First and foremost for stilling the mind and for calming the central nervous system to be able to stand in the [00:15:00] storms and the bad times, the good times. I mean, it all passes, good, bad. I talk a lot about, you know, the good, the bad and the ugly, you know, and so we want to try to stay relatively calm through the good, the bad and the ugly.
So we can interpret reality. We can see what's really going on and not in the state that we are. So if we have this amazing practice and we're used to We put ourselves in pretzels. Well, I don't, but or, or we do some poses that might be challenging. We practice being calm. We practice finding our breath.
We practice not taking ourselves too seriously. Find the humor, um, cry if you have to drop a child's pose. But if we've practiced it regularly, then when the stuff hits the fan, then it's there for us. Yeah.
Becca: I like that. I recently [00:16:00] went to a class where. actually I had been sick for a while and I was dealing with a little bit of vertigo. I had all these sort of, uh, I hate to admit it, but just sort of judgments like, Oh my God, I haven't, I haven't moved in weeks and I didn't feel very well. And the most gracious experience happened.
The teacher had us lying down for the first seven minutes of class. And I noticed I happened to have. My apple watch on and I noticed when she brought us out of this, uh, sort of, I guess, you know, starter Shavasana, I said, that was the most beautiful gift for me. That's seven minutes to, to collect myself.
And I really let go. It was like a Shavasana that, that really allowed me [00:17:00] to come to the present moment for sure, and I
just
Joanmarie: what is. To
Becca: except what is exactly. And then also I had just enough time. This last 30 seconds was to, to find myself making an intention. I'm going to do the best I can with what I have now.
Right. So I think that's, it's something that I have done since then, and this was only a month or so ago, and I've done that with my students. When I could feel the tension in the air and I see a little more chaos or imbalance coming in to the studio, then I say, let's start on our, on our back and let's just breathe.
Take time to notice what's happening in your body and take some time for yourself. Do the weeding upfront. 'cause sometimes in Shavasana it serves a really d different purpose. It's [00:18:00] more a rest, and then of course you can try to meditate. But uh, it was such a
Joanmarie: Yes, I like to do that as well, um, in the prone position, stacked hands, forehead on this hand. So the neck is comfortable. It's such a humble pose where it's just you and your breath, your faces, you know, next to
Becca: you and you,
Joanmarie: Yes. To kind of do the inventory, and what am I carrying today, and who am I today, and.
Because we bring it all to the practice. Nothing about yoga is fluff and, you know,
Becca: So you you just used a couple of, uh, good examples for what you say. Could you kind of coach some of our listeners? What are some of the things you can say when you, maybe when you first come to the mat and, and you have your students in prone position? I have mine, you know, in a supine position. What are some of the words that
you use to, to soothe your [00:19:00] students and invite them to come to the present?
Joanmarie: to? Yes, it varies what position I have them in, um, whether it's prone or supine or seated or, but it's always a, I talk about that bell curve, you know, it's the beginning of the practice is still and it's, let's find our breath.
Let's first see who we are. Who are we today? You know, are we angry? Are we happy? Do we feel great? You know, we always forget that part. It's always, you know, yeah, we feel great. Um, who are we carrying with us today? Um, sometimes an intention can be a dedication to, to someone else for someone else. Because all we can do sometimes for our loved ones is breathe for them.
Can't fix them. We can take them with us. But who are we carrying? Um, What's the state of our mind? You know, what's the quality of our breath? If you rushed to get [00:20:00] here, you know, your heart, right. Be beating a million miles a minute. And if you've had a lot of caffeine, you know, just to take note and notice, get those messages, the first few moments of the practice.
So you know how to proceed and to get into that self study mode.
Becca: And that's, that's really a form of meditation is to pull back and, , watch your thoughts,
Joanmarie: And then I'd like to remind everyone, you know, let's remind ourselves why we're really here. You know, the real, we're not here to get flat bellies and this and that it might happen. You might get stronger. I hope so. But we're really here to calm the nervous system and still the mind so we can see reality.
Becca: Wonderful. So, I always love that you bring, , inspiration, , in a form of a book or a poem. Do you have anything that just pops into your head or something, you know, resonates with your students? Well,
Joanmarie: use a lot of anything written by [00:21:00] Richard Rohr, anything Richard Rohr. , he is my personal guru and I don't believe he's ever practiced traditional yoga. He's a Franciscan priest.
Becca: Hmm.
Joanmarie: And he has, opened the door and, , helped me to not only incorporate , this, , non dualistic way of approaching life and the world and the yoga practice, , in everything he writes there's that, , that's that non dualistic, it's this and that, , it's never this or that.
So. I pull meditations from him all the time and, , read when appropriate. Sometimes I don't, , do anything deep and spiritual, just let people stretch their hamstrings. that's good too.
Becca: you bring people out of Shavasana?
Joanmarie: well, I believe in a good long Shavasana. So Well, I heard one time, , if you call people back, Max Strom said this, [00:22:00] if you call people back from Shavasana by just saying, okay, in a moment, I always give them a moment, , in a moment we're going to come back to these bodies.
So while you're in this sacred place and space of Shavasana, you know, put down what you can, what you've been able to soften to. Some things we can't put down. It's not realistic.
Um, and I
think that some things we just can't let go, but we can soften to it. We can see it in a different mindset because we're in a different state of mind, but if you can, you know, it's like, okay, it's time to put it down if you can, and then breathe into what you need, what you need, what you'd like to take with you.
And then start to slowly come back, , from this sacred place and space of Shavasana. But Max Strom, back to that, said. If you call people back and no one moves, you've done your job.
Becca: That
is, I love that. Yeah. I've been experimenting with even longer than normal shavasanas and one of [00:23:00] the main classes I teach is actually 55 minutes long. So giving them an 11 minute shavasana is nearly impossible , but I, I try to go for seven and sometimes I feel like, and, and I, I get feedback all the time.
Oh, if only Shavasana was five minutes longer,
Joanmarie: And some people, and I was one in the beginning, that's the hardest pose of all. They cannot sit still. They cannot.
Becca: Yeah.
Joanmarie: They cannot.
And I could not, it was like, oh my God, what are we doing here? Like monkey, you know? Um,
Becca: Let me ask you kind of , a related question, but it goes a little bit back into the class with nonverbal communication and you have a speech therapy background, right?
So I think that's phenomenal. . How do you utilize, , maybe some of your speech therapy training, , nonverbal.
Is there anything that kind of pops into your mind how [00:24:00] you can relate to a student, maybe not in the, the way we were trained in our yoga teacher intuitive, perhaps?
Joanmarie: My career in speech therapy, my entire career was at the Brain Injury Rehab Center, so I worked with brain injury patients, stroke, head injury, and I learned very early on how to break information down pretty well, so to describe things and to describe them different ways. for the auditory person, for the visual person.
, so I find that helpful. , I'm also Italian, so I use my hands a lot. So I use a lot of gesturing as well. I'm, I don't do a whole lot of hands on adjustments. , I can, I don't, it doesn't really relate to speech therapy, but, , I do use some non verbal gestures. Gestures also in my teaching, but I think the most [00:25:00] beneficial, , tool is the learning to break information down to describe exactly what I mean, what's triangle pose
Becca: clarity,
Joanmarie: know,
yes.
Becca: , that's a learned talent, if you will. Over the years, I know the classes I was teaching 20 years ago are very different from the classes I teach now. And even now I realize, well, I don't, and you just have to look around the room, you know, do people get it, are they understanding my cue, and then you break it down a different way, or perhaps that's the one that you decide to do with them.
Okay, so last question.
If you had all the time and money in the world, and this relates specifically to yoga, um, where would you expand your yoga life? Would it be traveling to India and studying philosophy or just do some brainstorming and imagination
Joanmarie: Well, like [00:26:00] you, , mentioned in the beginning, I have enjoyed, everywhere I travel, I try to pick up a yoga class somewhere. And it's been in all different contexts. Um, but it's primarily been in the United States. I've never practiced at a studio or studied outside of the country. , I, I don't have this pull to go to India and whatever, but, , I think it would be fascinating to go to another country and, Take a class or spend some time in a community there where English isn't spoken and maybe the Sanskrit, , I'd get better at learning the Sanskrit.
I don't generally teach using Sanskrit language. I also have always wanted to do some time up in, , was it
Becca: Oh,
Joanmarie: Kripal.
Becca: I love, yeah, I had a fully silent weekend and I learned so much about myself.
Joanmarie: Yes. And that's in the Berkshires, right? [00:27:00] Yeah. So that would be beautiful to be in some sort of, , beautiful mountainous, I get a lot in nature. So being out in nature,
it's very moving for me.
Becca: yeah, that's wonderful. , I teach a lot of outdoor yoga. So I'm out there a lot, just spreading my wings as wide as I can in a, in a forward fold and lifting super high in a peaceful triangle. It just feels so good to have so much space and the, you know, grounding, grounding is so important where you take your shoes off and you just feel the earth underneath your feet and you just connect.
It's more important than ever.
Joan Marie, this was a great conversation. Thanks so much for joining me today. It's always wonderful just to spend time with you, so I appreciate you being here
Joanmarie: Thank you, Becca.
I feel the same. Thank you.
Becca: and to our listeners. If you want to know a little bit more about some of the conversation points, we. [00:28:00] had today. I'll, uh, jot some things down in the show notes, including the authors that JoMarie mentioned.
Please keep listening, like the podcast and share it if you can. Thank you again, JoMarie. And, uh, we'll see you next time.